Dragon Crisis:The Dragon's Scales
by Ronnin-themanwithnoprinciples
Summary: Other Dragon's appear after one of Maruga's scale is stolen by a mysterious women known only as, "Vortex". Their own scales taken already, they make haste to protect the remaining Dragon's from losing their scales and bring Vortex's unknown plans down.
1. DISCLAIMER

DISCLAIMER

I do not own any content from Dragon Crisis, I only claim my OC's introduced in the story.


	2. Stolen Scales

Dragon Crisis: The Dragon's Scales

_Chapter 1: Stolen Scale's_

It was the dead of night over Maruga, the ice Dragon's, mansion. A figure hiding itself in the shadows dropped in from a window as silent as the still wind. The intruder crept through the large mansion in search of something, opening and closing each door it past, making a quick glance though, seeing what it was looking for wasn't there, and moving on.

Finally, the intruder opened one door a found what they was looking for; Maruga herself. The person held up their hand, and a spark stirred on it, then a flash of lightning ran across the room and through the opposite wall, yet completely missing Maruga, but she was awoken with a start.

"Who are you!" Maruga questioned.

The intruder did not answer, but jumped at Maruga and threw a punch at her, and Maruga jumped out of the way and prepared to fight off the intruder. Maruga sent out a flash of ice at the intruder in an attempt to freeze them, but the intruder was too quick and got out of the way, then circled around and jumped kicked Maruga to the ground.

Maruga made to try and freeze the mystery intruder again, but they grabbed her arm to keep it aimed away from them. "What do you think you're doing?" Maruga demanded an answer. Again the person did not answer Maruga, but instead gripped her neck with one hand until she fell unconscious.

Maruga didn't awaken until morning, at first thinking that perhaps it was a dream, but when she saw the hole in the wall made by the intruder and the ice she tried to freeze the intruder with, she realized that it really did happen. Still in a bit of a daze, it took her a moment to wonder what the intruder's purpose was. If it had been to kill her, they could have done it while choking her, or even before that when they shot the huge hole in the wall.

If the intent was to steal something, it would have been easier to make sure Maruga didn't wake up in the first place, but the intruder had seemed to make a point of waking her up and attacking. Maruga looked at her hand and instantly became aware of what the intruder took. Maruga looked at her hand and saw that one of her Dragon scales was missing. The Intruder had actually taken one of Maruga's Dragon scales.

That's when it occurred to Maruga that the Intruder had shot a jolt of lightning to wake her up, which came from the intruders hand. This pointed to the idea that this person had gone and taken more Dragon scales than just her own, and it also meant the other Dragon's were the intruders next targets.

"Rose is in trouble!" Maruga realized, and got up. "I have to warn her."

"Wait a second!" A voice said to stop Maruga.

"Who's there?" Maruga asked.

"I'm on your side don't worry," The voice said and a girl floated down into the room from the hole in the wall. Her appearance gave the look of a girl in her mid-teens. She had green eyes and pale blonde hair, she wore a light green tank-top and a blue and purple skirt that reached her knees. And on her hand, Maruga saw green Dragon scales.

"We want the same thing as you," Another voice said and a man walked into the room from the door. The boy was around the same age as the girl, and he had golden hair he combed back and gold eyes to match. He wore a light yellow jacket with blue jeans. On his hand were yellow Dragon scales. "Same as the others already on their way to the Red and Blue Dragons."

"We can't beat her individually," The girl said. "Even with many of us it would be hard now, our only chance is to gather everyone to combat her."

"Who was she?" Maruga asked.

"She calls herself Vortex; that is all we know" The man replied. "We'll answer the rest of your questions on the way, can you fly?" The man asked.

"Yes, let's not waste time." Maruga said, and the three of them left Maruga's mansion.

Once outside, all three sprouted wings on their backs and flew into the sky, Maruga's a silver-blue, the other girl's stale green, and the boy's flash yellow. "Now go ahead and ask whatever questions you have now." The boy said. "Once we reach our destination, there won't be much time to talk."

"Who are the two of you?" Maruga asked first.

"My name is Sora," The girl said. "I'm the Dragon of Wind, and he's Raijin, Dragon of Thunder.

"Your scales were also taken by this women, this: Vortex?"

"No, actually only my scale has been stolen out of the two of us." Raijin answered.

"You mentioned others heading for the Red and Blue Dragons. Who are they?" Maruga asked.

"The White and Brown Dragons were already converging for them, since we weren't certain which one of you she would target first. We split up to try and protect the one she did attack, but it appears we came too late." Sora explained.

"They probably arrived at the Red Dragon's location a few hours ago. From here, Vortex shouldn't be anywhere near there yet, and we should be able to meet up with them first." Raijin continued.

"Did the White and Brown Dragon's also have their scales stolen?"

"Yes, Vortex took the White Dragon's scale first, then the Brown's, afterward cornering us." Raijin said.

"That's when they found us," Sora said. "Just in time to watch Vortex make her escape. After putting out knowledge together, the four of us came up with the plan that resulted in us arriving here."

"Please, tell me the details of your knowledge of this women. I'll be able to better assist you more if I get a better grasp of the situation." Maruga told them.

Sora began. "Of course; naturally, the first thing we all realized was that her intent was to steal a scale of each Dragon. As you are aware, the scales of a dragon carry the very source of our powers, so by taking them, she can gain our powers."

"And although we can't be certain at this point, we believe the order in which she is stealing the scales is not random." Raijin continued. "In accordance to our gathered knowledge, Vortex started with the White Dragon, who at that time was residing in Hong Kong; after this, she went to find the Brown Dragon, who was living in Africa."

"So, what does that mean?" Maruga wondered.

"The problem is that Raijin and I lived in America, which is closer to Hong Kong than Africa. What it means is that she wasted time traveling from Hong Kong to Africa, then back to America when it would have been faster to go from Hong Kong to America to Africa." Sora explained. "And the same goes with you as well, you live in Japan, which is even closer to Hong Kong than America is. So the question remains why she took her time going from one dragon to another just to make a 180 and turn back. The only explanation we could think of was that she is working toward something more than just getting the power of the Dragons; the only question is, what?"

"But the biggest clincher that suggests it is not random is that Sora and I live together, and we fought Vortex together, yet after we were defeated, she only took _my_ scale." Raijin finished.

"So the order of scales that have been taken up to now is..." Maruga started.

"Light, Earth, Thunder, and then Ice. This leaves Wind, Fire, Water, and Darkness." Sora said.

"Actually, there is no need to count the Black Dragon." Maruga cut in.

"What, why is that?" Raijin asked.

"You see, the current Black Dragon, Onyx, is already dead." Maruga told them, surprising them both, making them stop flying. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, in fact this may help us out." Sora said. "If Vortex really is getting the scales in a certain order, then it would stand to reason that she also needs to collect them all, including Darkness."

"But if the Black Dragon is no longer alive for his scale to be taken, Vortex may not be able to complete what she is aiming to do!" Maruga realized.

"Exactly, but since we still can't be certain if there really is a specific order, we still don't have any time to waste, let's get going to meet up with the other's. By now they probably have also rounded up the Blue Dragon and explained to her and the Red Dragon everything we've told you." Raijin said.

"Once we all get together, we'll come up with a plan to beat Vortex and get back our scales." Sora said, and the three of them started flying again, heading for Rose, hoping it wasn't already too late.


	3. Meeting of the Dragons

_Chapter 2: Meeting of the Dragons_

"Come on, Ryuji!" Rose called Ryuji as she ran up to the door of their apartment.

"Wait up, Rose, I can't keep up." Ryuji said as he chased after her to keep up with.

With them was Sapphie, the Blue Dragon, who had been following them around ever since Onyx died. Although she was convinced that he would come back for her, and even went so far as to start attending their school.

Ryuji was about to unlock the door to the apartment when he heard voices coming from inside. "What's wrong, Ryuji?" Rose asked, noting his hesitation.

"Shh," Ryuji told Rose, and pressed his ear to the door and listened.

"Are you sure this is where the Red Dragon lives?" A women's voice asked, surprising Ryuji.

"I'm certain, I checked around and everything pointed here. She's got to turn up eventually." A man's voice told the first.

"Well we've been waiting here for hours and there's still no sign of her. The Blue Dragon is somewhere in the area right? Maybe we should go look for her first instead." The first voice suggested.

"What should we do?" Sapphie asked Ryuji in a whisper.

"The only thing we can do." Ryuji said, pulling out his Lost Precious, Slash Breath, ready to fight if he needed to. He opened the door and rushed in, holding up his Slash Breath in front of him. "Who are you two?" He asked.

The women and man in Ryuji's apartment turned to him and got defensive. The women looked about 17 years old, she had long white hair and white eyes as well. She wore a tight purple shirt with frills on the sleeves and a short black blouse over it with blue shorts. The man looked around 20-24. He had a tan, scruffy brown hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a brown shirt that didn't have sides on it that was tied to his waist by a black sash, sort of like the top portion of a Chinese fighting robe, but was rugged and dirty, giving him a tougher look. He also wore cargo pants and had on chain-link wristbands.

"We'll be asking the questions here. Who are you?" The man asked.

"This is my apartment! Why do you want Rose and Sapphie?" Ryuji asked.

"Rose and Sapphie?" The women questioned, then looked at the open door to see two young girls, who then braced themselves in case she attacked. The women stared at them for a moment and then noticed the dragon scales on their hands. "Ah! The Red and Blue Dragon's!" She said loudly.

"What do you want them for?" Ryuji asked again, but now the two of them seemed to calm down.

"You can relax, we don't want to hurt them, we want to warn and protect them." The women told Ryuji.

Ryuji kept his Slash Breath pointed at the two of them, not convince they were really on their side. "Warn us? About what?" Sapphie asked the two strangers.

"Here, take a look." The women told them and she and the man held out their right hands, showing their dragon scales. "My name is Hikari, I am the Silver Dragon." She told them.

"My name is Rikuto, I am the Brown Dragon." The man said.

"Why are you here, what is it you want to warn us about?" Rose asked.

"Look here," Rikuto told them as he pointed at a point on his hand in the dragon scales. "Do you see the small indention in my skin just below the scales?" He asked, and at close observation, they did see it. "Another dragon scale _used_ to be there, it was stolen." He told them, surprising them greatly.

"It's the same for me." Hikari said and showed where the scale was taken off her hand. "They were taken forcibly from us by a women who only identified herself as 'Vortex'."

"Who's Vortex?" Ryuji asked.

"We'll go though the details once you put down the blade of yours, we're on your side." Rikuto told Ryuji, who was still pointing his Slash Breath at them.

"We don't know that for sure, your story could just be a bunch of lies. How do I know you don't want to kill Rose and Sapphie?" Ryuji replied.

"We are strong, fully grown dragons, if we were going to kill you, we would have done it already." Hikari retorted Ryuji's logic.

"Ryuji, it's alright." Rose told Ryuji, who then finally lowered his weapon.

"Okay, so what's the deal with this 'Vortex' women?" Ryuji asked.

Hikari and Rikuto then explained the situation of a mysterious women called Vortex, who had gone around the world to find the dragons and steal their scales for their power. They told them about the other dragons who had been heading for Maruga and were probably on their way here as they spoke. Then they went into detail about how Vortex seemed to be going after the dragon's scale's in a specific order, and that's why they split up to get to the other dragon's that hadn't been targeted yet.

"Speaking of Dragon's that hadn't had a scale taken yet, I heard the Black Dragon also lived in this area." Hikari said. "You wouldn't happen to know of his location right now would you?" Ryuji, Rose, and Sapphie were taken aback by Hikari's question, and didn't respond. "... What is it?" Hikari asked after a moment of no response.

Ryuji finally spoke up. "The Black Dragon, Onyx is/"

"He's coming back!" Sapphie cut in, not wanting Ryuji to say Onyx was dead. "He's coming back for me for sure! He has too!"

"Sapphie..." Rose muttered.

"So the Black Dragon isn't here right now? Do you have any idea when he'll be back?" Rikuto asked Sapphie.

"No, I don't know when he'll get back, but he'll definitely return for me!" Sapphie replied.

"Ryuji, right? Come over here." Hikari told Ryuji, and the two of them stood and walked over to a corner of the room, then Hikari lowered her voice to a whisper. "Something tells me the Black Dragon isn't on some sort of trip." She said.

"Yeah," Ryuji replied. "Sapphie doesn't want to admit it, but Onyx is already dead. And it was Rose and I who killed him."

Hikari became shocked, but calmed herself before speaking again. "He's really dead?" She asked to confirm.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it." Ryuji answered.

"Hm, this is something of interest. We'll go over what to do next once the other Dragon's arrive. Until then, we'll wait here, is that alright?"

"Sure," Ryuji told Hikari, then suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Hm, they already here? That was faster than I expected." Hikari said and walked over to the door. When Hikari opened the door, she saw Sora, the Green Dragon. "Sora, where's Raijin and the White Dragon?" Hikari asked as she let Sora in.

"They'll get here in a couple hours, but they wanted me to fly ahead to inform you all of what happened." Sora said and looked around at Rose, Sapphie, and then at Ryuji. "I take it your Ryuji, Maruga told me and Raijin a little about you on our way. First, let me ask if you already know about the Black Dragon?"

"Yes, Ryuji has already informed us." Hikari replied.

"Good, then I'll skip that part." Sora said. "What we know right now is that Maruga, the White Dragon, had her scale stolen as of last night; Raijin and I arrived to late to help."

"So that means Vortex now has a silver, brown, yellow, and white dragon scale." Rikuto noted.

"That's right, which also means she's halfway to accomplishing whatever her goal is. That said we still need to make a plan to defend the Red and Blue Dragons." Sora said.

"Do we know when Vortex will get here?" Ryuji asked.

"No, but it is clear she normally only acts at night. Probably wants to avoid drawing the attention of crowds and more importantly the attention of dragon eccentric scientists." Sora answered. "So the best plan, I think, is for Hikari, Rikuto, and Maruga once she gets here to stay up at night and keep a watch out for Vortex. Then during the day they can rest while Raijin and I keep an eye on them during the day just in case. How does that sound?"

"That should work out alright for now, good work Sora." Rikuto said.

For the next 2 hours, everyone spent some times just getting to know one another, as teamwork would also be very important in protecting Rose and Sapphie. After all this time, there was a knock and the door and Maruga and the Yellow Dragon, Raijin, arrived.

"Hey Sora, glad to see you got here safely." Raijin said first thing.

"Same to you, Rikuto." Sora replied.

"Rose, are you alright?" Maruga asked hurriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine Maruga, it's good to see you again." Rose replied.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?" Sapphie asked Maruga. "You've already had your scale taken right?"

"That's why I'm worried, you two are Vortex's next targets." Maruga argued.

"It'll be alright Maruga, we'll all protect Rose and Sapphie together, so there's nothing to worry about." Ryuji said confidently.

"Yes, thank you Ryuji." Maruga said with a smile. "Now that all the Dragons have gathered, there's no way Vortex can win."


	4. Vortex

_Chapter 3: Vortex_

It was night time two days after Hikari, Rikuto, Sora, Raijin, and Maruga had come to Ryuji to warn Rose and Sapphie about Vortex, who was a woman with the intention of stealing one of each Dragon's scales. All they knew so far was that Vortex seemed to be gunning for the scales in a specific order; they believed this since she did in fact skip out on the chance of getting the Green Dragon's Scale when she and Raijin were defeated by her the first time, and she only took his scale.

Hikari, Rikuto, and Maruga stayed awake during the night to keep lookout for Vortex just as they had planned. Hikari was on the roof, using her light powers to scan around for Vortex initially. Meanwhile Maruga used her Dragon wings to fly around the building continually watching for Vortex from every angle. And lastly Rikuto kept watch inside Ryuji's apartment in case Vortex managed to get past both of them without being seen.

After another circle around the building, Maruga flew upward to Hikari. "What are you doing? You need to keep a constant lookout." Hikari told Maruga.

"Something is still bothering me about when Vortex attacked me to take my Dragon scale. I felt it important to tell you." Maruga told Hikari, who began to listen intensely. "The problem is that Vortex attacked me in the middle of the night, but instead of going directly for my scale, she wasted time and blew a hole in my wall with the Yellow Dragon's lightning to wake me up and fight me; only stealing my scale after knocking me unconscious."

"The other Dragon's and myself had similar occurrences when they were first attacked. Do you think it is possible that even though she possesses our powers she does not have enough control over them?" Hikari proposed.

"No, that doesn't make any sense, why would she waste time attacking us at all with a power she knows she can't control when she could easily just take the dragon scales off our hands without making so much as a sound?"

Hikari considered this for a moment. "You're right; it is strange that she wastes the time to do all this. Is it possible that she is testing herself, seeing if she is strong enough to defeat us before taking our scales?"

"If her motive truly were simply obtaining our powers, then that possibility is not likely. But if what we assume is correct and she does have another motive behind obtaining our scales, then it is very possible that she is testing herself against us to make sure she can accomplish her final goal; or even that defeating us to obtain the scales is actually a necessary part of the process to accomplish her final objective."

"In the end, we really don't have a clue as to what Vortex is planning, do we?" Hikari scowled. "Anyways, continue keeping watch, we need to be prepared if Vortex decides to show up."

"Alright, but I never did get a good look at Vortex; what am I supposed to be looking for?"

When Maruga asked this, Hikari realized a fatal flaw in their plan. "Actually… I never got a good look at her either. It was too dark to see her at the time." She admitted.

Maruga groaned with confusion. "How are we supposed to look for this person is we don't even know what we're looking for beyond the fact she's a female with Dragon Scales in her hand?"

"You're right; this is pretty useless right now. Let's get back to Rikuto." Hikari decided, and jumped off the building, soon after spreading her dragon wings. The two of them flew back around the building and found Ryuji's apartment which had its window currently locked.

Hikari knocked on the glass and Rikuto let them inside. "What's the matter, did you see Vortex?" Rikuto asked the two.

"Well that's sort of the problem; we realized we don't know what we're looking for to identify Vortex with." Hikari said. "You didn't happen to get a better look at her face did you?"

Rikuto thought for a second. "Well I did get her under a street light for a second, but now that you mention it she actually hide her face and jumped out of the light before I could get a good look."

"So it's not just that we haven't, it's that she's making sure not to show her face." Maruga noted.

"So it seems, but I'm a little surprised Vortex hasn't shown up yet." Rikuto said. "The time gaps between the rest of our attacks make sense because of the distance she had to travel. But from Maruga's place to get here shouldn't even take a day. So why hasn't she attacked yet?"

"Do you think she's waiting for a certain amount of time to pass? Or maybe she just hasn't figured out this is where Rose and Sapphie live yet." Maruga suggested.

"That doesn't make much sense though. Even when Rikuto and I first arrived it didn't take us but a few hours to follow the trail and find this apartment." Haruki said.

"So why hasn't she shown up?" Rikuto asked.

Becoming frustrated, Hikari began to run her hands through her hair. "Man, we really know _nothing_ about this woman do we?" She asked angrily and sat down on the couch, rubbing her forehead like she was having a migraine.

Deciding it was useless to continue searching outside the building, Maruga and Hikari just slouched around the room with Rikuto for the rest of the night. In the morning they told the others about their realization before Ryuji, Rose, and Sapphie went to school with Sora and Raijin watching over them.

While they were off at school, Hikari, Maruga, and Rikuto caught up on some much needed rest. Maruga and Rikuto used the apartment's two beds while Hikari elected to sleep on the couch in the living room.

However, it was only a couple hours before there was an unexpected knock at the front door. The knock woke Hikari up with a start, and she pointed her Dragon Scales at the door and didn't move. She was only so suspicious because anyone who knew Ryuji would have known he had school today and therefore realize the apartment should be empty.

There was of course the more likely idea it was someone completely unrelated like a delivery man dropping off a package, so Hikari stood up and walked over to the door, just to get rid of whoever it was.

However, when Hikari opened the door, she didn't see anyone there until the person spoke up leaning against the wall next to the door. "Finally, fighting 7 Dragons at the same time is not part of my plan." Hikari turned to the woman standing there immediately. The woman standing there had long wavy brown hair and purple eyes; and was wearing a long-sleeved, button-up white shirt and black trousers. "If there's just three I can do it easily"

But the thing Hikari noticed was the hand the woman had raised in front of her, decorated with their stolen Dragon scales. "Vortex!" Hikari got out before the white Dragon scale began to glow, and ice spurted forth.

Hikari was quick and jumped back into the apartment just before the ice caught her and instead froze the door hinges. But because it was so sudden, Hikari stumbled back and fell on her butt as Vortex entered the room and had a sly grin on her face as she used the power of the White Dragon scale once again. Hikari attempted to get to her feet and jump behind the couch for cover, but this time was too slow and her left leg caught in the ice and stuck to the couch, and Vortex shot more ice to freeze Hikari's right hand with her Dragon scales to the couch as well so she couldn't fight.

At that point Rikuto and Maruga ran into the room and saw what had happened. "It's Vortex!" Hikari warned them and they turned to the woman in the door, who had their Dragon scales on her hand.

Vortex clenched her hand and shot more ice at the two Dragon's who had just entered the room, but Maruga used her own powers over ice and stopped the attack as it hurdled toward them. "Rikuto, hold her off while I help Hikari." Maruga said.

"Got it," Rikuto replied and ran at Vortex.

Rikuto punched forward and rock began to form around his hand with the power of his scales, and the shot the chunk of rock at Vortex. However Vortex held out her hand and stopped it with her bare hand, utilizing the power of the Rikuto's stolen scale, and threw it back at him.

Rikuto used his powers to shatter the rock before it struck him, but once he did he saw Vortex suddenly up on him thrusting her hand toward him with an electrical charge surrounding it, using the power of Raijin's scale. Vortex pushed her hand against Rikuto's chest and sent a few hundred thousand volts through his body, causing him to yell in pain and fall to the ground.

Vortex turned her attention to Hikari and Maruga and saw that Hikari was not only free, but preparing to use her scale's power. Hikari used her power to fire off a laser of light at Vortex, but in a quick reaction Vortex put her hand up as the laser was shot, and using Hikari's stolen scale, deflected the beam to the side and it burned through the window pane without causing it to crack in the area surrounding glass.

Maruga followed up Hikari's attack with a shot of ice, but Vortex saw it coming and ran forward, using the white scale to separate the ice and keep it from striking her and then used Rikuto's scale and threw a large chunk of rock at her, hitting her in the head and knocking her unconscious as well.

"Damn you," Hikari shouted right next to Vortex and covered her hand in light, making to punch vortex with that power.

But Vortex reached over and grabbed Hikari's hand with hers and kept the power from being released. Hikari pushed against Vortex's hand while trying to rekindle the light power in her fist, but Vortex's power over the same element made that difficult to get it to work.

Then, Vortex pulled her head back a bit and grabbed Hikari's shoulder with her free hand. Vortex pulled Hikari in and head-butted her as hard as she could. Hikari was knocked off balance and stumbled to the ground. "Geez, did you three get weaker since last I fought you?" Vortex asked, but without waiting for an answer brought another rock down on Hikari's head, knocking her out.

Vortex looked around at the three Dragons and sighed. "Hee, you're all fools if you thought you could beat me."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry I haven't updated in forever, but I am back on track and promise to have more updates soon! (if there's not one soon feel free to call me out on it, may be just the motivation I need)<strong>


	5. Vortex 2

_Chapter 4: Vortex 2_

While Ryuji, Rose, and Sapphie attended school, Raijin and Sora patrolled around the building. Despite not knowing what Vortex looked like, few people entered the school building after classes began; so if they just kept an eye out for a woman with the Dragon scales, they should be able to spot her pretty easily should she show up.

After a couple hours of circling the school building, the two Dragon's took a short break by a chain link fence out front. Sora sat on the ground holding one leg close to her body to rest her chin on while Raijin stood with his back against the fence and tossed a stone around in his hand.

While they watched the entrance, Sora posed a question. "Hey Raijin; If Vortex does show up, what are we supposed to do?"

At first Raijin was unsure what Sora meant. "What do you mean? We fight her obviously. We have to protect the Red and Blue Dragons no matter what."

"Well yeah but, could we even if we tried?" Sora asked, and then Raijin caught on to what she was talking about. "The first time we fought her, we couldn't even last for an hour. Now she's even more powerful with Maruga's scale. Do we even have what it takes to stop her on our own?"

Raijin looked at Sora's depressed expression for a moment, but then regained a look of confidence. "Well don't forget, we still have our secret weapon." He told Sora, who looked at him with a mixture of surprise and pride. "If we use that this time, we could still pull it off. And don't forget that we have Maruga, Rikuto, and Hikari to back us up; and even though their young and inexperienced, Rose and Sapphie will have our backs as well."

As Raijin said all of this, Sora could tell he wasn't just trying to make her feel better. He meant every word he said and believed they could pull it off once the time came. In the light of Raijin's confidence, Sora's mood brightened and she gave a joyous smile. "Yeah, you're right." She said and stood up. "Well, let's get back to patrols." She said.

"Right," Raijin agreed and the two Dragons began patrolling around the school again.

Little did they know that the situation back at the apartment had become worse than they could even imagine. After Vortex knocked Hikari, Rikuto, and Maruga unconscious, she had tied them up and put them in separate rooms. But she knew if she used regular binds the Dragons could use their powers to easily escape, so she binded Rikuto with Maruga's ice and Maruga with Rikuto's rock. While they sat in one or another room of the apartment, Vortex herself watched over a still unconscious Hikari tied in regular ropes while sitting on the table.

Vortex looked over at a clock; 12:36. It had been a little over an hour since Vortex had shown up, and it would still be almost three more before the rest of the Dragons got back from the school. Vortex was of course aware of Ryuji and his status as a level 10 Breaker; however she still viewed him as a simple child who presented no real threat to her.

Vortex sighed as if bored of waiting and looked down at Hikari again before picking up a cell phone next to her on the table. "Hey, anyone awake over there yet?" She spoke into the phone that was on speaker.

She waited for a second and then a voice came from the opposite end. "So you're monitoring us? And here I thought I'd have time to figure a way out of here." Rikuto's voice spoke from the room he was being held in.

"Well that's one, what about the Ice Princess?" Vortex asked.

"What do you intend to do with us?" Maruga's voice asked from her end.

"Nothing you're expecting." Vortex answered surprisingly. "Only reason I came here before attacking the Red Dragon is so I'd have some bargaining chips and keep me from having to fight four Dragon's at the same time. But after how easy it was taking you three down, I'm not that worried anymore."

"What does that mean?" Rikuto asked.

"It means you three are no longer what you used to be. The Dragon Scales are what fuels your powers; it seems that when I took one away, I changed the pattern of your powers. That's why I took all three of you down so easily." Vortex told them.

"But wouldn't that make your powers even weaker?" Maruga asked. "You only have a single one of each our scales."

"That's because you're not weaker; your balance is just off." Vortex answered. "Taking one of your scales disrupted the balance of your power, not simply taking away from it. I realized there was a balance measure after getting the first Dragon scale. I had to practice with it for a week before I perfected its use. The problem with you three is that you hadn't even realized it since you hadn't used your powers much since our fights; if you knew, you could have readjusted your balance to work as well as before even with the missing scale."

"In other words, Sora, Rose, and Sapphie are the only ones who can still fight at their best." Rikuto said.

"Not to mention Rose and Sapphie are still children." Maruga added.

"And once I have the remaining Dragon scales, I'll be powerful enough to cream all of you without even trying." Vortex said with a smile of enjoyment.

"Hate to burst your bubble Vortex, but the Black Dragon is dead; you can't get his scale anymore." Rikuto said laughing, feeling confident that information would mess with Vortex's head.

Opposite to his beliefs, Vortex responded, "Oh, I am quite aware of the state of the Black Dragon."

"What," Maruga shouted. "So you're saying the number of scales has nothing to do with your plan?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? At any rate I'm not about to tell you what my plan is, if I just straight out told you that, it would make this boring. I've only been telling you all of this so far to kill some time." Vortex informed the Dragons. "And now that you know about that balance problem with your powers, once I have the Red Dragon's scale you can use the next couple of days to fix the problem while I get used to it."

"Well you can forget it." Rikuto told Vortex. "We're not going to let you get away with whatever it is you're planning. Once the others get back, you can kiss those scales on your hand goodbye; because there's no way you'll be able to take four Dragons plus a level 10 Breaker while keeping them away from all three of us."

"Hee, how much you want to bet, Brown Dragon, or should I call you Rikuto?" Vortex said, using Rikuto's name even though none of them has ever told it to her. "I've done my research on all of you, including that second rate brat Ryuji Kisaragi; and let me tell you that he won't be a problem for me at all. There isn't one thing about you people I don't already know, and if any of it would have kept me from achieving my goal, I never would have shown up at your doorsteps."

"So that's it, huh?" Suddenly Hikari spoke up, finally having woken up. "It's already 'Game Over' for us as far as you're concerned?"

"Pretty much," Vortex answered. "But I still hope you guys can make this fun for me."

"Don't screw with me," Hikari muttered to herself with her head hanging down.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said don't screw with me, you bitch!" Hikari shouted at Vortex with utter hatred. "You think you can toy with us all you want and get away with it!? Well think again!" She shouted, and then utilized her power over light to burn the ropes binding her off and got to her feet, and then formed an orb of burning light in her hand and threw it at Vortex point blank.

However, this did not seem to surprise Vortex in the slightest. Instead, it seemed as if she was expecting this reaction put her own hand in the way of the orb of light and caught it, flipping back off the table and landing on her feet while still holding the orb of light. "Watch that temper there, Silver Dragon. With your powers so unstable right now something on this scale might have just blown up in your face. Talk about your 6th degree burns, right?" Vortex said jokingly, and then used her scale stolen from Hikari to reverse the flow of light in the orb and return it to the natural state of light, making it harmless.

While this was happening, the cell phone on the table was left on and Maruga and Rikuto could hear everything that was said, although they were unable to do anything to help. "Shut up," Hikari warned Vortex, obviously pissed off. "No one makes a fool out of me and gets away with it. You're not getting away from me this time, and there's no way I'm letting you lay a finger on the other Dragons!"

Despite these threats, Vortex simply grinned. "Fine then, why don't you entertain me until the Red Dragon gets back?" She challenged, holding up one hand as a taunt. "As a treat, I even limit myself to just using your scale so you might actually have a shot." She told Hikari, which only succeeded in pissing her off more.

Hikari used the power of her Dragon scales and readied an attack of light as Vortex waited for the attack to come. When Hikari moved her hand and pointed it at Vortex, their battle began.

School ended and Ryuji, Rose, and Sapphie exited the school building and met up with Sora and Raijin. "Well, no sign of Vortex today." Raijin noted when they all began walking back to the apartment.

"Not that it's that surprising; Vortex attacked all of us at night, so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume she's trying to keep it low key and away from the public eye." Sora added. "But I still have a bad feeling about how much time has elapsed since her last attack. What is she planning?" She asked, looking down with a worried expression.

Ryuji noticed Sora's expression and decided to speak up. "Worrying about it won't do us any good; we'll just have to wait it out."

"I guess so," Sora agreed, although did not look like any of her worries had been alleviated.

The group made it back to the apartment building and used the elevator. When they arrived at the door to Ryuji's apartment, Ryuji opened up the door and they all began to file in. However, before they even got through the door, they all suddenly froze at finding the state of the apartment and who was there.

The room was torn apart and flipped on its side, and the cause of it all was a woman who stood at the opposite end of the room, holding Hikari up by her hair in front of her. It didn't take anyone more than 3 seconds to realize who this woman had to be, and for confirmation could look at her free hand to see the Dragon Scale's that proved her identity.

"Vortex!" Ryuji breathed out in shock at the scene.


End file.
